Months Prior to Arrest
Early Morning
Cloudy
The inky blackness of the room was partially illuminated by the glow of the television. The teen's face was a mixture of focus and intrigue as he carefully watched the film. It was a sci-fi movie from the 70s, yet he felt no lack of immersion.
While most would focus on the hero, a young man from a distant planet, Akira was most captivated by the antagonist—a fear-inducing, powerful, and ruthless man who seemed to dominate the screen. The grace and power of his movements were stunning, to the point where Akira wondered how the protagonist was supposed to come out victorious.
Unfortunately, the ringing of a cell phone broke Akira's immersion. Seeing the name of the caller, Akira took a deep breath before picking up.
"Yes, mom."
"Akira. How was school?"
"…It was fine."
"Make sure your grades don't fall just because your father and I are not present. When we come back, there's an event we have to attend, so make sure to get your haircut and your tuxedo dry-cleaned. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Make sure not to poke your nose around and get into something that could bring your father and me trouble."
"…"
Without so much as goodbye, Akira's mother ended the call. Years ago, Akira would have felt frustrated, but he had grown used to his parent's indifference.
Running a hand through his frizzy yet soft dark hair.
After quickly making a note to make an appointment with the hair salon, Akira resumed the movie, fully entranced by the dazzling swordsmanship.
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Akira effortlessly slashed the Agi attack of the leftmost Jack-o-Lantern. Before the latter could react, the Persona user accelerated forward leaving behind an afterimage. In the next second, a slash mark could be seen on the Jack-o-Lantern, before it burst into wispy shadows.
Staring down the other Jack-o-Lantern, Akira called for Kippōshi.
"Kippōshi, Spirit Stab!"
The persona kept to sword in his right hand lowered as his left hand rose. His hand was suddenly enveloped by burning reddish-purple energy that just as quickly extended out and stabbed the remaining Jack-o-Lantern through the head. A breath later, the shadow had dissipated.
Akira made eye contact with Kippōshi before the latter smiled and faded away.
"W-what the hell?!?"
Kamoshida stumbled backward and nearly fell as he saw the display of power. Before Akira could reach him, Ryuji tackled the almost naked man.
Akira focused on Ryuji who despite being just on the edge of death a moment ago seemed to be fine.
The two teens left the cell and made sure to lock the door. The newly awakened persona user had the slightest thought of slaying Kamoshida, but the vast majority of him did not want to kill what appeared to be a human no matter how much the appearance of said human made the bile in his stomach crawl up his esophagus.
"Urg…What happened?!"
Ignoring the groaning pervert, Ryuji turned towards Akira.
"What was that dude?"
"A power. A power born from the spirit of rebellion."
"That somehow makes sense…"
"Yeah. But, we can't stay here. Let's get out before more guards come."
"Right!"
The two made their way through the maze-like hallways of the castle. Akira took point and would handle any guard that blocked their path. With each battle, he grew in might. It was clear, even from an outsider's perspective that the teen was using less and less effort to handle the guards.
Their harrowing journey was no less accentuated by the various people they saw locked up in cages and cells. While Ryuji kept expressing his overt dissatisfaction, Akira kept quiet but silently agreed with his blonde schoolmate.
As they were rushing towards what seemed to be another dead-end the two heard a voice.
"Hey. Over here. Blondie! Frizzy hair. Look over here."
Looking into the cell, the two spotted a strange creature. What appeared to be an anthropomorphic bipedal cat with a rather large head flagged down the two teens.
"What is this thing?"
"You're not soldiers of this castle, right?! Get me out of here! Look, the key's right there."
"We're trying to get the hell outta here. I mean, you obviously look like an enemy too."
While his mind disagreed with Ryuji, in his heart Akira wanted to agree.
"I'm locked up here, so how can I be your enemy!? Help me out!"
"Quiet down the two of you. Listen…"
Many footsteps could be heard. It sounded like quite a large group, and Akira was unsure if he could manage to take down so many while protecting his companion.
"Crap! They're catching up! And my phone still has no service. How the hell do we get out?"
The creature's eyes seemed to spark with excitement.
"Hey! You two! Do you want to know where the exit is? Let me out and I'll take you there. You don't want to get caught and executed, right?"
Akira leveled the cat creature with a fierce stare.
"Are you being honest?"
The creature gulped before answering.
"Absolutely!"
"…Sakamoto-san, grab those keys."
"Are you sure?"
"We don't have time to double-check. If we get surrounded, I doubt I can get the both of us out safely."
"Argg…Fine!"
Ryuji opened the door while Akira carefully observed the bizarre animal creature. He felt a similar energy but could not confirm his assumption.
"Ahhhh… Freedom tastes so great…"
"No where's the exit you monster cat?"
"Don't call me a cat! I am Morgana!!"
"Shuddup and hurry it up! You wanna be locked up again!?"
"A-All right, sheesh! Follow me and stay quiet."
Morgana led them towards a drawbridge. Before the "cat" could speak, Akira pulled on the jaw of the statue of Kamoshida, which started the mechanism to lower the bridge.
"Wow! You're pretty observant, unlike the Blondie."
"Watch it you cat!"
"I'm not a cat!!"
"We can argue once we're out of here. Let's move."
The trio rounded a corner when they came face to face with another guard.
Ryuji stumbled back onto his rear. It was clear to Akira that the blonde was reasonably suffering from some sort of trauma from the previous incident.
Morgana seemed unabashed, performing a front flip off the blonde's shoulders before stepping forward to confront the shadows alongside Akira.
"Come. Zorro!"
An ethereal blue flame rose from behind Morgana and manifested into a black clade man donning a cape and wielding an épée. His upper body was disproportionately more muscular than his otherwise thin lower body. The lower part of his face was completely blue while the upper part was covered by a dark mask. He had a sharp mustache that bent and extended upwards.
Performing a quick flourish, Zorro's yellow eyes stared contemptuously at the guard who was now transforming into two shadows.
"Hmph, we will promptly shut them up!"
Akira assessed the two shadows. One was the all too familiar Jack-o-Lantern, while the other resembled a devil with a strange object sticking out from lord knows where.
"Allow me to show you how it's done! Zorro, Garu!"
With a wave of his blade, Zorro unleashed a flurry of wind blades that hit the Jack-o-Lantern and left it dizzy.
"Strike an enemy's weakness to gain an advantage and perform a follow-up attack. It's the basic of the basics."
Without any further prompting, Akira dashed forward and delivered to the fallen Jack-o-Lantern a finishing attack. As he leaped backward, Mona sent another Garu toward the devil-looking creature, which managed to eliminate it also.
As both shadows dissipated, Akira felt his strength increasing. By now he realized that by defeating shadows, his power would rise, much like a videogame character.
Then, he felt Kippōshi becoming stronger and learning a new move…Cleave.
"Not bad! Even though you didn't use any of its moves, your Persona has quite the presence."
"Persona," inquired Ryuji.
"Y'mean that thing that comes outta you guys all dramatic-like?"
"Yeah. You saw how he took off his mask to summon it. Well, everyone wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that, they'll gain the ability to awaken their persona, a representation of their rebellious soul. As far as–"
"Hey! Can we focus on getting out of here? We can talk about magic mumbo jumbo when we don't have a whole castle chasing after us!"
"You think I don't know that, Blondie!?"
"Stop calling me Blondie! My name is Ryuji!"
"Why don't both of you settle down? Let's get out of here."
Morgana and Ryuji crossed their arms and looked away from each other, but showed no signs of disagreeing.
"I swear it's like a dog and a cat."
"I'M NOT A CAT/DOG!!!"
Akira pinched the bridge of his nose while letting out an exasperated sigh.
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"We're here."
Morgana had brought the two Shujin second-years to a quiet hallway on the ground floor of the castle.
The journey had been surprisingly easy much to Morgana's bewilderment. The black-haired teen was a natural at using his persona. Normally, fights between shadows would loosely adopt a style closer to a duel with each side taking turns. Akira, while still inexperienced seemed to possess instincts and insight to counterattacks and perform multiple attacks without targeting a weakness. This was without mentioning the fascinating ability that Akira had discovered when Ryuji almost fell into the water when they faced off against a guard.
"Finally, we're saved."
Ryuji went near a door but found that it was locked.
"It's not openin'! Did you trick us you jerl?!"
"Don't jump to conclusions! Over here!"
Morgana went towards a different door, when opened revealed an unremarkable room with bookshelves and cabinets.
"Where are we supposed to get out from here!? There aren't even any windows!"
Morgana's impression of Ryuji continued to fall at the hasty comment.
"Ugh, amateur…This is the most basic of basics."
"…Well, I wouldn't call it basics, but that ventilation shaft looks like a good escape route."
"As expected! You're a natural at this! The ventilation shaft leads outside."
Ryuji immediately leaped towards the said shaft and tried to remove the metal mesh. As he along with the mesh were about to crash, they came to a gentle fall. The blonde chalked it up to being in a paranormal environment, but Morgana was closely observing Akira.
The teen's hands had gestured as if to catch Ryuji, and when he did so an invisible force helped Ryuji softly land.
Morgana was perplexed but also amazed. A secondary power, and a very useful one at that.
"…That was weird, but this whole place is trippy. Let's get out of here guys."
"Both of you should head out."
"What about you, Morgana?"
It was Ryuji who had asked but Akira mirrored his shared concern.
Morgana's impression of Ryuji had risen from an idiot to a kind idiot, but he knew that he still had work to do.
"There's still something that I still have to do. We're going our separate ways."
Akira leaned down and patted Morgana on the head.
"H-Hey!!"
Akira stared intently into Morgana's blue eyes.
"You know better than us that this place is dangerous. Be careful."
"Aahh…Thanks…You better be careful too."
Standing up straight, Akira gave Morgana a nod. Ryuji silently thanked Morgana before climbing on the bookshelf and crawling through the ventilation shaft. Akira followed suit, giving Morgana a final glance.
"Those two seem useful. The frizzy-haired one has so much potential…
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The world seemed to shift and warp as the two teens finally came to a halt.
"Did we make it?"
[You have returned to the real world. Welcome back.]
"Returned? Does that mean we're back?"
"Seems like it."
"Dude…What was all that anyway? Kamoshida, the castle, and that weird cat!"
"Relax."
"How can you tell me to relax man?!"
"Look at the time."
"The time? It's–Crap! We're going to be late!"
"Yeah. Let's go. I'd rather not be late on my first day."
The two moved quickly towards Shujin Academy and managed to get there with the straggling crowd.
"This is insane…We went the same way…No castle."
Akira's focus was both on what Ryuji was saying and on the whispers of the people passing by. Let alone their eyes, Akira felt as if they were talking about him. Strange.
"Let's go inside, I need to meet with my homeroom teacher. We can meet near the gate after school or something."
"Huh? Yeah. I guess we don't have much of a choice."
As the two separated, Akira focused more on those around him. Their constant whispering and their fleeting glances. Turning the corner, he almost ran headfirst into a rather tall man.
Akira had grown to 185cm tall, noticeably tall for a Japanese man, but the man in front of him was easily 200cm. But it was not his height that made Akira wary, but a tingling sensation that warned him.
"Ah. You're the transfer student. At least you come to school on time if barely. I'm sure you've heard from the principal, but cause any trouble and you'll be expelled. Understood?"
The two stared into each other's eyes. From within Akira, Kippōshi had opened its purple-reddish eyes. A sense of defiance and pride supported Akira to look straight into Kamoshida's dark eyes.
Their exchange had drawn the attention of other students, but neither conceded.
"Ohh! There you are!"
Kawakami, Akira's homeroom teacher approached the two.
"You were almost late on your first day. What happened?"
Without breaking eye contact with Kamoshida, Akira made up a reasonable excuse.
"I'm unfamiliar with the area. With the rain, it was difficult to navigate."
Kawakami had now realized that Akira's attention was solely on Kamoshida, and the instantly felt the rising tension between the two.
"…Why don't we go to the faculty office, Kurusu-kun."
Akira allowed himself to be guided by Kawakami but kept his eyes trained on Kamoshida until the latter was out of sight.
Finally, in the faculty room, Kawakami led Akira toward her desk.
"You barely made it on time for class. You were supposed to meet me here earlier. What happened?"
"As I said before, I got turned around."
"Right…And what's going on with you and Mr. Kamoshida?"
"…He approached me."
"Haaa…Fine. Please don't forget your situation."
The two left the faculty room and walked towards the classroom. Kawakami gave Akira a final reminder to properly introduce himself.
As they entered the classroom, the students moved to sit at their respective desks.
Kawakami walked towards the lectern while Akira stood to the side. He easily picked out that they were talking about him as if they knew his history. It was strange.
"Settle down! I'd like to introduce a transfer student: Akira Kurusu. Please say something to the class."
Akira stood up straighter than normal, and gave everyone a polite smile.
"My name is Akira Kurusu. I transferred here from Yokohama. Nice to meet all of you."
It was a normal introduction, but something about it felt overwhelmingly charming, and even those who glanced at Akira with trepidation and scorn softened their expressions.
"Okay…Your seat will be…Over there."
As he approached his chair, he noticed the blonde girl from this morning. She seemed to have noticed him as well.
"You're from this morning."
"That's right. Nice seeing you again."
After the quick greeting, Akira took a seat and leisurely followed along with morning classes.
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After School
Cloudy
Akira exited the classroom, giving the blonde a nod on his way out. She had been kind enough to share her textbook, and he figured that he'd get her some kind of present as a thanks.
On his way towards the stairs, he was stopped by Kawakami.
"Hey…Thanks for behaving…It seems like somehow, people are already talking about you, but at least the ones in your class have a better impression…How did that information even get out? Only teachers and faculty should know that…Anyway, please don't get into any trouble on your way home."
With those words, she left, heading towards the faculty office. Ryuji seemed to appear as Kawakami left and approached Akira.
"I'll see you on the rooftop."
Akira nodded and planned to grab a drink from the vending machine, but he carefully positioned himself as Kamoshida and the principal of Shujin climbed the stairs.
Akira watched as the Kamoshida complained that his record would detract from the glory that the volleyball team brought to Shujin. The principal agreed and appeased Kamoshida. Once the two split, Akira made his way towards the vending machine.
{They treat you like a nuisance…a fool. It's how they saw me too…}
Hearing Kippōshi's voice, Akira responded through their bond.
{…Were they not proven wrong in your case? Then so will they in mine.}
{Haha…I look forward to it.}
- - -
"Sorry for callin' you up here like this. You probably heard about me from the others."
"Something like that."
"Ha, we're pretty much in the same boat. I heard that you have a criminal record, everyone is talking about it. No wonder you were so gutsy."
Akira disagreed with the statement but did not want to delve into the details, at least not today.
"…What was all that? The castle, and us almost getting killed? It wasn't a dream right."
"No that was no dream."
"Don't mean much if only we remember it. But whether it was a dream or not, you saved me from Kamoshida… Thanks.
"No worries, I did what I should."
"Yeah, I get that…Thanks aside, that Kamoshida we saw there…Based on the rumors about him."
"Rumors?"
"Yeah, he walks around like a king because he's a medalist who took the volleyball team to nationals. It made that whole castle thing feel incredibly real"
"I see…"
"Argh! Screw it! It must have all been a dream. Sorry to drag you out like this. That's all I had to say. You know, we might be pretty similar. I feel like we're going to get along just fine as "troublemakers". I'm Ryuji Sakamoto! Just call me Ryuji. I'll come talk if I see you around. Don't ignore me, all right?"
Akira held out his hand. Ryuji, initially surprised grinned even wider and firmly shook it.
"Kursu. Akira Kurusu. It's a pleasure meeting you, Ryuji."
"Likewise man…See ya!"
With that, Ryuji left, leaving Akira alone on the roof.
Walking towards the railing, he stared at the distant skyline of Tokyo.
Soon, a leaf gently floated toward Akira. With a simple hand gesture, the leaf stopped in midair, completely frozen. With a second gesture, the leaf was pulled towards him and landed in his palm.
{Is this your power Kippōshi?}
{Yes…but you having such access to it so early is atypical.}
{…Seems like my whole life is atypical at this point.}
{Hahaha, that it is my friend. That it is, hahaha}